Read My Lips: A Queer MM Romance

by Jem Martin

Perfect for fans of Alexis Hall

One (unrequited) crush. One (fake) relationship.
It's a matter of interpretation…

British Sign Language interpreter Ben Cooper excels at sticking to the background. Keeping quiet is literally the gig. And he loves it. The only problem is his unwieldy, unethical, entirely unrequited crush on his sole client, Simon Azie.

Overachieving Simon is everything Ben's not. Career-forward and composed, the deaf PR agent sparkles through life, reversing celebrity scandals with a wink and a grin – until, that is, his insta-perfect image glitches.

Tagged in an anonymous sex tape filmed in a closeted client's country pile, the agency cues Simon for cancellation before their reputation gets as muddy as a music festival. Panicked they'll never work together again, Ben blunders in with the worst idea he's ever had.

No celebrity; no scandal. What if the unidentified other man is him?

Either they fake the relationship or their intertwined careers are toast. So, commitment-averse Azie boyfriending better than Ben ever daydreamed doesn't mean anything…right?

Genres: M M Romance, Queer, Romance

332 pages, Paperback

Published September 14, 2026

Reviews

[phoenix *ੈ✩‧₊˚]

I picked this up for the Deaf main character, and the author clearly knows how to write about this topic. I enjoyed this part of the book, and I also think it was very well written. The book was definitely entertaining.

That being said, I couldn't connect with Simon. I wish we could've seen his perspective too, so I could've understand him better. He was not totally unlikeable, but I also wasn't really fond of his personality.

The fake-dating romance between them was fine. I enjoyed this setup and it made sense. But I didn't feel any chemistry between the two MCs, which made it hard for me to believe in their romance.

The book wasn't my favourite as I didn't really feel the romance. But I'd still recommend this for the representation and the fake dating aspect. I'm sure other readers will love this book!

✧ Thanks to the author for providing the ARC!

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos]

Please Find Attached: Several Years of Evidence That He Likes You
Jem Martin’s “Read My Lips” turns romance into a case file of photographs, glances, professional boundaries and one man’s heroic determination to misunderstand all of them
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | September 2nd, 2026

Deafness is not the central misunderstanding in Jem Martin’s “Read My Lips.” Desire is. Ben Cooper makes his living interpreting British Sign Language, which requires close attention to hands, mouths, faces, posture, timing, light, and all the other small conditions on which meaning can depend. He is expert at reading other people and almost perversely bad at reading what they feel about him. More damagingly, he has become practiced at editing himself into whatever version seems least troublesome: quieter, less needy, less visibly out of place. Simon Azie, the Deaf PR professional Ben has wanted for years, has perfected another method. One interprets. The other makes stories behave. Neither is especially good at leaving his own alone.

Everything starts with a crisis of interpretation. A leaked sex tape appears to show Simon with Richard Whittaker, a closeted former rugby player and client whose private life has abruptly become office business. The footage is genuine; what strangers decide it proves is not entirely so. Ben, trying to save Simon’s job, announces that the unidentified man in the video is him. Professionally, this is lunacy. Simon is furious for the simplest possible reason: Ben is his interpreter. His job is to render what Simon says, not step into the sentence and start supplying new material.

Martin turns the lie into an escalating publicity campaign. Ben and Simon need photographs, shared history, convincing intimacy, the digital sediment from which strangers might infer a relationship that supposedly existed long before the scandal. The awkward part is that Ben has actually loved Simon for years. The more awkward part is that Simon soon behaves like a man whose allegiance to the word “fake” is mostly technical. Ben treats every glance, touch, invitation, and filthy suggestion as evidence requiring immediate dismissal. Simon could probably arrive with roses, a solicitor, and a brass band spelling out I WANT YOU, and Ben would wonder whether the gesture was reimbursable.

Even the publicity stunt has more interesting work to do than simply getting two men into compromising positions. The leaked video seems to prove one thing; staged photographs are meant to prove another. Richard wants privacy, reporters want a coherent scandal, Simon wants a story he can control, and Ben keeps accepting whatever explanation leaves him least wanted. He sees Simon look at him and substitutes professionalism. He hears desire and calls it temporary lust. He receives tenderness and finds pity hiding inside it. The comic problem is not scarcity of evidence. Ben has plenty. His talent lies in declaring almost all of it inadmissible. A real image can still be invasive, misleading, or stripped of context; a staged image can accidentally catch something emotionally true. Martin keeps worrying that distinction without turning the novel into a seminar on media ethics.

The same trouble with reading begins at the level of bodies. Signed dialogue is presented as fluent translation, without italics fencing it off from spoken English, and the choice makes the mechanics of communication unusually visible. Lighting matters. Eye contact matters. So does whether somebody turns away, covers a mouth, talks over another person, or assumes that lipreading works by magic. In an early crisis meeting, Simon tells colleagues to face him, stop shouting, speak one at a time, and speak to him rather than Ben. The scene is funny because Simon has turned the tiresome business of instructing hearing people into patter. It is also practical enough to change who gets to participate in the room. The book is at its sharpest on access when access looks like logistics: a chair moved, a face uncovered, one person waiting half a second longer before speaking.

Read Simon as Ben does at first and he seems almost offensively composed. There are the tailored clothes, the dry timing, the social ease, the ability to stroll into a professional disaster as though somebody has merely brought him the wrong cocktail. Then the effort underneath starts showing. Simon admits to laughing when other people laugh because he has lost part of the conversation, to claiming lipreading is enough because needing less is easier for everyone around him, to making competence look effortless. He has also learned how much Blackness, Deafness, and eccentricity a professional room will welcome before it starts calling the same qualities difficult. Ben shrinks his wants. Simon disguises his effort. They recognize confidence in each other partly because neither recognizes the labor behind it. Simon’s polish is therefore both genuine competence and camouflage, and the novel is better once Ben can see both without treating either as fraud.

In Ben, the same habit is noisier. His first-person voice is profane, frantic, bodily, and gloriously prone to overreaction. A social mistake becomes an extinction event. Desire can apparently shut down major organs. A coat stand is enough to trigger class panic. Martin is funniest at the level of rhythm: Ben’s thoughts race through observation, catastrophe, simile, correction, and another simile before a short “Fact.” or “Bullshit.” shuts the trapdoor. “Fact.” is especially good. Ben uses it as a tiny stamp of authority on conclusions the novel keeps proving wrong. His sentences overreact because he does.

Precisely because the voice has so much velocity, it sometimes runs past its strongest effects. Martin will land the joke and then, not quite trusting the landing, give it another lap. Ben’s love life acquires the same drag. His certainty that Simon cannot sincerely want him is persuasive at first: body shame, class insecurity, bisexual stereotypes, bereavement, and family cruelty have all supplied him with reasons. Later, Simon supplies an almost prosecutorial quantity of reasons to reconsider. He seeks Ben out when he does not need to. He worries aloud about the imbalance between client and interpreter. He says what he wants. Ben keeps inventing fresh paperwork for disbelief.

At some point, that disbelief stops changing shape. Sev finally sits Ben down in front of photographs accumulated over years: Simon watching him across rooms, drifting toward him at gatherings, standing beside him when no conversation requires it. Ben’s first defense is so perfectly Ben that it nearly saves the repetition. Of course they are looking at each other, he says. They sign. Looking is the job. Sev keeps clicking. Then come the photographs where there is nothing to interpret, no professional reason for Simon’s gaze to settle where it does. Love has been hiding not in declarations, but in where the attention goes when nobody is asking it to.

Perhaps the book gets sadder, and better, when Ben’s obstinacy stops looking like a romantic-comedy delay and starts looking inherited. His grandmother’s cruelty has the manners of care. She makes tea, asks whether he wants a biscuit, complains that he looks tired. She also describes Ben’s Deaf mother as a trial, recalls the suppression of BSL, and lets Ben understand that the “mess” his mother left the family was him. She never remembers how he takes his tea. That tiny failure lands almost as hard as the larger cruelty. Ben has spent years learning to accept care on other people’s terms and to be grateful before asking whether it was care at all.

As that history comes into focus, rooms and possessions begin quietly telling on him. Simon’s flat has plants, books, color, framed photographs, things touched often enough to acquire stories. Ben’s home looks provisional, as though he has been careful not to leave fingerprints. He does own photographs of his mother, but keeps them in a shoebox beneath the bed. He has purple trousers he wanted enough to buy and not enough to wear. Furniture belongs to other people; taste remains hypothetical. No wonder Simon’s home feels dangerous. Ben is not simply afraid of wanting Simon. He has barely practiced wanting a lamp.

During the publicity campaign, Simon finally does the thing Ben has feared being done to him. In front of a reporter, he uses private information about Ben’s mother and grandmother to make their manufactured relationship more convincing. It is a professional reflex applied to the wrong human being. Simon knows how to take unruly facts and arrange them into a usable story; here he takes something Ben entrusted to him and makes it usable at all. Ben’s anger is not another mistranslation. For once, the story he tells himself – that he has become material in somebody else’s campaign – is true. A romance about seeing another person clearly would curdle if the book excused the moment when one lover turns the other into usable copy. It is also the rare point at which Ben’s habit of assuming the worst protects rather than distorts him.

Intimacy works differently. Some of the novel’s best erotic writing comes from the fact that looking is both practical communication and desire. During sex, Ben discovers that when he stops narrating catastrophe and watches Simon, he can read him perfectly well. Eyes follow mouths. Hands pause. Bodies turn so the other person can see. Questions are signed against skin. Elsewhere, Simon simply waits for Ben to finish speaking, and Ben experiences the attention almost as a physical event. The explicit scenes earn their space because sex is not a holiday from the novel’s interest in language. The bodies have to keep communicating too. Martin’s explicitness is not coy, but its best effect is less shock than precision: desire becomes another place where attention has consequences.

Much of the romance’s intelligence lies in refusing to treat the client-interpreter arrangement as a naughty technicality. Simon pays Ben and relies on him to do his job; Simon therefore worries that Ben’s yes might carry more obligation than either of them wants to admit. Ben has a different confusion. Being necessary to Simon feels dangerously close to being loved by him. The book eventually separates the two. Simon gets another interpreter. Ben takes other work. The practical solution is almost comically unromantic, which is precisely why the romance can survive it. Ben has confused being indispensable with being cherished. Simon has to make himself dispensable before either man can know the difference.

In the climax, the title earns its keep. Simon tells Ben to read his lips and says, without sound, the thing Ben has spent the novel ruling impossible. Ben understands immediately. There is no vocabulary problem. No damaged sightline. No professional ambiguity to hide behind. The interpreter is finally asked to stop interpreting. Nothing needs improving, contextualizing, or translated into a sentence that asks less of him. The meaning is sitting on Simon’s mouth. Ben only has to accept the answer.

The epilogue refuses the easier romantic fantasy. Ben does not simply move into Simon’s beautiful flat and call the transfer growth. He gets new work, a proper bed, furniture, paint, his mother’s photographs on display. His room turns dark blue. A large koi swims across the wall because Ben and his mother once watched fish surface in their pond, even in the rain. Simon helps paint, makes jokes, ruins a shirt. He does not decide what the room should become. When the possibility of a shared house comes up, it stays in the future. First, Ben gets somewhere that is unmistakably his.

Richard’s secrets, Luke’s pursuit, Mel’s crisis management, staged footage, public lunches, and multiplying stories are less controlled. The machinery is often funny, and much of it belongs to the book’s argument about who gets to frame a life. But once Ben and Simon have become emotionally more interesting than the scandal, the scandal keeps demanding fresh paperwork of its own. Another complication arrives, then another. “Read My Lips” is rarely slow. It is occasionally longer than its momentum deserves, and Ben’s repeated refusals to believe Simon contribute more to that drag than the sex tape ever does. The problem is not that the farce is implausible. Farce has diplomatic immunity. It is that the emotional truth becomes clearer before the plot is ready to admit it.

Once the farce is granted its license, though, the feelings underneath remain recognizably ordinary. People do become very good at appearing fine. Families can make control look like concern. A job can blur the difference between being relied upon and being wanted. Curiosity about queer sex can dress itself up as moral entitlement, particularly when somebody has lied and everybody else decides that the lie transfers ownership of the underlying life. Martin is shrewder when these pressures enter through a badly arranged meeting, an unwanted interview, a grandmother’s tea, an empty wall, than when they are named outright. The novel’s seriousness is best smuggled in with the comedy.

Put numerically, I land at 82/100, or 4/5 stars. The prose is lively enough to occasionally exhaust its own jokes; the romantic misunderstanding lasts beyond its ideal span; the publicity plot sometimes keeps performing after the quieter book has already won. But the central pair remains unusually well conceived. Ben’s profession, Simon’s work, BSL, lipreading, photographs, class embarrassment, sex, and home are all pulling on the same knot. The real movement is not from fake relationship to real one. It is from a man arranging himself around other people’s expectations to a man willing, finally, to have preferences that leave marks.

One image finally matters more than all the manufactured ones. Ben does not end remade into Simon’s polished double, installed permanently at his elbow, or rescued into somebody else’s better rooms. He remains anxious, funny, horny, occasionally impossible Ben. What changes is the evidence of his presence. The photographs come out of the box. The walls acquire color. A giant koi appears where blankness used to be. Simon can imagine a pond in their future, but he does not demand that future now. For a novel crowded with people manufacturing proof of love, the last proof is pleasingly domestic: a man learning to leave visible signs that he lives in his own life.

[Dawn]

As an American-turned-Canadian, my first reaction to Read My Lips is that it is VERY British. VERY. Nearly every page had a word or a phrase that was new to me or unusual in its use and I loved it. I learned a great deal about many things I didn't know I didn't know, and I looked up dozens of words to better understand their context.

The narrator, Ben, is funny. Truly, this man has a sharp, sarcastic, witty, and quick mind that takes us deep into his inner world with how he reacts to almost every situation (catastrophically, as it were).

A small collection of his Ben-isms include:

--- "Rats in cages learned faster than me."

--- "Things I would stick a fork in my eye to get out of taking part in. Number one: discussing the bloke I failed to get off with, with the boss who stalked my fantasies."

--- "Watching a posh tw@t have better s*x, more successfully than me in the back seat with my boss while my hangover birthed itself in real time: exactly what every evening needed."

--- "We could have done mistake s*x if he wanted mistake s*x. I could have shown him an epically mediocre time he'd instantly regret."

--- "This was as close to perfect as a chimpanzee's rendition of the Mona Lisa."

--- "The bags under his eyes were breaching the hand-luggage limit. Any self-respecting airline attendant would slap a label on him and conveyor belt him off to the hold."

--- "I juddered incomprehendingly as my brain rolled over and waved its legs in the air like a labradoodle."

I'm curious how the D/HH community receive this book. As a hearing person, I found the way Martin switched between spoken and signed dialog to be skillful, easy to follow, and nuanced. I was constantly aware of whose face was visible, how fast they were speaking (Jo and Sev need to SLOW DOWN, geez), and whether a hand or two was available to sign BSL (particularly during spicy scenes). It was easy to track and be mindful of thanks to Martin's vivid scenes and attention to detail.

My insides melted from vicarious horror and embarrassment when Ben volunteered his "solution" to the crisis early in the story and the cascade of unfortunate events that followed. I wanted the ground to swallow me up on his behalf.

In the quiet moments when Ben and Simon are alone and being real with each other, it felt like warm sunshine on a soft, slow morning with a blanket wrapped around me while sipping fresh coffee. Cozy, sweet, languid. I wanted so much more of that for them.

Ben and Simon's spice scenes (the legit ones, specifically) were arousing and delicious. They had this somewhat restrained quality where it felt intimate without being explicit.

My heart hurt so badly for Ben and Simon during the 3rd act breakdown, ESPECIALLY during the luncheon towards the end. Oh Ben...... I'm so so sorry for what got said, particularly in the washroom after you tried to escape what Simon said (you-know-who is a massive tw@t).

But, I will say Simon and Bed are both categorical ding-dongs of the tallest order. Use. Your. Words. (Spoken or in BSL, you have OPTIONS.) Ben's self-loathing felt heavy at a few points; Simon's cryptic and misleading responses felt cruel at times. I'm still not sure what was true and what wasn't when it comes to some of the things Simon said to Ben, and that hurts my heart.

Overall, this was a very very funny (especially the first two-thirds), very British little MM romance. I suspect a lot of people will find it delightful. Jem Martin - you are masterful with comedic phrases and I hope you write so much more with that sharp wit.

[luisasreads]

Thank you Netgalley and Jem Martin for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW TO BE UPDATED ONCE BOOK RELEASES!!!

OH MY GOD!!!! this is such a stunning debut i don’t even have words. it’s also unlike anything i’ve read before and that’s definetly half its charm.
this book is unapologetically queer and sex positive which i love so much. i was intrigued by the premise from the get go because there is a severe lack of deaf representation in literature, especially the romance genre and i found the concept of interpreter x deaf client very interesting. what struck me the most was the romance! the mutual pining and yearning is strong in this one but add some absolutely stunning and poetic writing that will take your breath away to it and slap on some brutally british humour and expressions (which as a brit i absolutely loved the people who get it get it) and you have this book.
it’s bi for bi. simon is an amazing character and so complexly written i love him so much. and he’s bi, deaf and black. having him as both a mc and the romantic interest is everything and though i would have loved a double pov, the beauty of this story is that you don’t immediately get him and so you get to peel back layer by layer. THE ANGST IS BEAUTIFUL. the concept of fake dating to cover up a sex tape scandal is crazy and i loved it! 10/10 i can’t wait to see what else this author has in store.

[Shane]

2.5 stars. I feel really conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I was interested in it in the first place because I saw people talking about how signing was incorporated into writing and I think that part was great! I really enjoyed how the different character experiences showed deafness and Deaf culture isn't a binary state of not hearing. In terms of the rest of the story, I feel like it had promise but the follow through got complicated for me. I got whiplash as things would be brought up and then not really dealt with and then something else was just happening. The book both did and didn't try to deal with the actual ramifications that a situation like this would entail? A huge detail that happens relatively early on in the story is that the two people who have previously been in a working relationship have to fake a sex tape. This is treated as just a thing they're doing, enough that we're making quips about it. It kept on like that in a way I just never got to feeling fully connected to. That being said, I did really feel like the author had a great voice and I do want to give their next book a try to see if the way the plot is set up and the resolution is more my speed.

[Sarah☀️ Somerville]

I really enjoyed this (despite the fake dating - not my favourite trope). I would have liked more focus on the family/disability/mental health issues - there was a lot going on and I really liked the themes, but some of the issues got lost/weren't really explored.

[Mandee]

life is entirely too short to keep reading books i absolutely cannot stand. dnf at 15%.

[Andie Hiestand]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This was a fake dating troupe that didn’t quite work for me since the one character was pining for years beforehand. Good representation and a fast read. Just fine overall.

[Maria]

4,5/5. An addictively entertaining rollercoaster of drama.

Based on the author's note and the trigger warnings alone, I could tell that Jem was the kind of writer I would enjoy, and I was not disappointed. What I hadn't expected was how gripping this book would be for me, especially since the first few chapters were what I'd already known from the description. It's such a whirlwind of vibrancy and drama that you can't help being swallowed whole.

The representation - both of queerness and deafness - was loud, well-done, and added so much to the story. I've never read a book about a deaf character and had no idea how one could even work on a page, but this was done in such a fun, informative way that it seemed like the most effortless, obvious thing in the world, which I can't imagine being easy to write. I'm thoroughly impressed, especially since this is a debut.

Can't not mention the sheer chaos, desperation, and dramatic flair of Ben, because that's what makes this book so intoxicating. His debilitating self-doubt is very relatable and his colorful way of speaking/thinking consumes your focus until the only thing you want to do is just read one more page over and over again. He is longing so hard from start to finish that it's truly a testiment to them both being idiots for not getting it on sooner, and that makes it even more entertaining.

All this, plus the sheer drama of what goes down - and the pacing working alongside it - make it irresistible. I mean, the reveal of what kind of person grandma was packed such a punch, there were so many good plot twists, Sev and Matt being done with people's shit was a gem, and I loved that whole 'bullshit' thing they had going on.

It doesn't get full 5 stars because of two reasons.

The first one is minor - a few too many metaphors comparing everything to other things. I notice patterns too well for stuff like this not to bother me, but even so, it wasn't the end of the world, just an eyeroll once in a while. It's a debut, we all have our quirks when writing, and I'm sure it's not that big of a deal for a neurotypical reader anyway.

The second one is bigger - it blurrs the line of consent as I understand it.
I can get behind a friends-with-benefits kind of thing if it makes sense for both parties and they are both lying to themselves that it's okay and they won't catch feelings. Lying to yourself is fine, but as soon as you start lying to the other person to get what you want, I'm not okay.
There's also this moment when Ben's self-doubt convinces him that Simon is making a mistake being with him and as soon as he realizes that, he will want to stop, so Ben pushes forward hurriedly. And Simon's reaction is sweet and it's a romance, so they obviously want each other, but I just can't push it out of my head that if your initial reaction is to push forward and not take a step back, you sound like a guy who'd bang a hot drunk chick whose inhibitions are currently lowered, and that's not the kind of person I want to cheer for.

Still, my moral qualms aside, this is a solid debut and I can't wait to read more from Jem Martin. I'd recommend this to fans of fast-paced drama-filled romances who love a truly desperate, yearning man.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for letting me read the ARC!

[Stacy]

3.5 rounded up⭐️
I’m reviewing this book honestly in exchange for receiving an Arc from NetGalley and Victory Editing.

I liked this story of Ben and Simon. Ben is a BSL interpreter for Simon, who is hearing aid assisted, but relies a lot more on lip reading to be able to hear with those hearing aids. Simon is a PR manager at a huge PR firm.

There is a sex tape that gets out involving Simon and his ex Richard-who is also his client. Ben steps in, without thinking, so Simon, and him in-turn, don’t both lose their jobs….and says it’s him with Simon on said tape.

Much hilarious banter and relationship growth ensues. And I found myself sad for Ben, how he felt so useless to everyone. At least in his own mind. He didn’t feel worthy of much of anything, proper love, acceptance, and his family didn’t help at all on that front.
Simon always just seemed to truly see him, but it was always client/employee relationship-with Ben having a huge secret crush.

It was fantastic to watch them grow into a couple, even though neither could seem to admit it fully to themselves-and not at all to each other.

I was surprised when I learned about Simon and the ex relationship and its complexity. But I understood it.

But Richard is a fucking tool. And he never gets better imo.

Ben and Simon are both sweet. I thought Simon was kind of pompous at the start, but I totally am a Simon fan. They both loved each other and it grew through their years of working together that couldn’t help but connect them on an intimate friendship level. Just took the two of them a bit to admit it.

For a debut novel, I really liked this book. I would love to read more of this authors work in the future. I did find that there was just something lacking, minor, but something I can’t pinpoint exactly, that made me constantly feel that Ben should just take off and say fuck it. Maybe it’s the book being told in only Ben’s POV? So we don’t get to see any internal growth of Simon? But he’s not super strong in how he conveys his unspoken love. They both show it more when alone. But when others are around, it’s like it’s harder to see.

And I personally REALLY wanted there to be a finality to the bathroom revelation Richard gave. Things were said, the minor break between the main couple happens, and then there’s a reconnection. But that’s never addressed. It’s this bullshit that happens and it’s just left as a loose thread. Maybe that’s me, but I believe they’re still all friendly, and I couldn’t trust someone who did that and assumed Ben wasn’t worth anything and Simon would just come crawling back.

Maybe it’s just a personal beef, but that’s why I can’t give the last star. I need there to be a wrap up of bombs like that and asshole exes and new relationships. There also wasn’t a wrap up of gran. And I need there to be superb connection growth. And this kind of hit a wall and there wasn’t more after a 50-60% point. Till the final come-together. Which was good, but I don’t like the open-ended dramas at the end, even if it’s a side character. Especially the implications of the bs in this particular book.

But overall, it’s a good read. They’re a good couple. It was interesting to read a book with the interpreter as a MC, and seeing it from that perspective.

[Jessie]

⚠️ ARC Review – Contains Spoilers

I received an ARC of Read My Lips from the author in exchange for an honest review. This review contains spoilers.

Read My Lips was such a fun and thoroughly enjoyable read. It follows Ben, a sign language interpreter who works closely with Simon, a deaf, successful, incredibly handsome and wealthy man. Ben has been secretly in love with Simon for years, but he would never dream of saying anything. In Ben’s mind, Simon is completely out of his league, while Ben sees himself as too big, too clumsy, and definitely not handsome enough for someone like Simon.

Then everything suddenly goes sideways.

Simon accidentally ends up making a sex tape with a client of the company he works for, and when he is called in to explain himself, Ben can’t bear the thought of Simon losing his job. So, in a moment of panic, Ben blurts out that he was the person in the video and that he and Simon are actually in a relationship.

And from there, things get wonderfully chaotic.

What follows is a series of hilarious and sometimes completely ridiculous situations as Ben and Simon try to convince everyone around them that they are actually a couple. Meanwhile, they start a friends-with-benefits arrangement, despite the fact that it becomes increasingly obvious that there are real feelings involved on both sides.

The banter between them was one of my favourite parts of the book. Their chemistry was fantastic, and I loved watching them navigate their fake relationship while both of them were desperately trying not to admit how much they actually cared about each other.

I also really enjoyed the way Simon’s deafness was incorporated into the story. His communication with Ben felt natural and well written, and I loved the way they interacted with each other. It added something special to their relationship and made their connection even more enjoyable to read.

I will admit that it took me a few chapters to really get into the book. Once I did, though, I absolutely flew through it and ended up reading the rest in one sitting.

My biggest issue was the ending. Ben’s insecurity eventually leads to their breakup, and while I understood where his feelings were coming from, I found him incredibly frustrating at that point. He makes some decisions that had me wanting to shake him a little! Luckily, Simon’s sister-in-law gives him a much-needed reality check, and Ben finally realizes that Simon has been just as crazy about him all along.

I only wish we had gotten more time after that realization. Once Ben finally understands that Simon feels the same way, the book wraps up very quickly. I would have loved to see more of them actually being together and enjoying the fact that all those years of longing were finally over.

Despite that, I really enjoyed Read My Lips. It was funny, romantic, had fantastic banter and a great central couple. If you enjoy fake dating, friends-with-benefits, mutual pining and plenty of chaotic situations, I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.

⭐ Overall: A very fun and entertaining read that had me smiling far more often than not.

[nina]

— 3.5 stars ☆

I wanted to make him feel good. Wanted him to know he was worshipped, adored. Everything with Simon worked as easily as breathing. In me. In him. I didn't have to prove a thing, or act a role. Everything I was with him was already enough. And Simon could be my universe.

thank you netgalley and jem martin for the arc (this was my first!)

this is a great debut and i wouldn't have guessed it was the author's first published book! beautiful writing and i loved ben and simon so much, together and apart.

"He kissed me like I was special, and I kissed him back like I believed him."

this was wonderful deaf representation! i don't see deaf main characters very often and i wish there were more. i saw a friend reading this book and got so intrigued by the synopsis that i didn't want to wait a month for it to be released. it was a unique setup and the interpreter/client concept seemed too good and i was right!

"Flustering you is one of the great joys of my life."

there was so much pining! they are bi4bi, yearner4yearner, idiot4idiot.

miscommunication trope strikes again! as it so often goes, if they had just properly communicated, it could have been such smoother sailing. but of course, then it wouldn't be the same story! at least side characters called them out on it for me.

But it wasn't just sex anymore. Not for me. Not when afterwards he lay there rubbing patterns onto my forearm, grounding me, without a thought. I never knew I needed grounding, but one steady touch from him and my whole body eased.

i understand why this was a single pov, for the sake of the story, as it wouldn't have been the same book if we had truly known simon from the beginning. part of the journey was unraveling him as time went on. but i usually prefer a dual pov and i was yearning for it here so badly. i wanted to know what was happening in simon's mind long before we got enlightened in the last handful of chapters!

"Ben, show me how gentle you are."

the set up with the plot itself felt silly and a bit hard to believe, as most fake dating scenarios tend to be, so you kinda just have to smile and nod!

overall, this did get a bit tedious for me and just felt it was dragging on, for various reasons:
- living in ben's pov, as an unreliable narrator and someone deeply insecure, was exhausting and frustrating; that was likely worsened for me because i related to him too strongly, so that's a me problem.
- ben's personality felt kind of limited to being insecure, self deprecation, and pining for simon, so i felt we could've dived deeper.
- it was hard for me to focus! while some of the writing choices were beautiful, it is also VERY wordy, so descriptive and lots of metaphorical phrasing, to the point that it almost feels like a creative writing workshop and trying to reach a certain word count. it can be magical at times, but sometimes i just wanted to skim to get to the point. i would get too distracted by all the adjectives to understand what was even happening.
- following the previous point, i got confused with the side characters and such and wondered if i missed something important, if we were intentionally being left in the dark, or if it just hadn't been mentioned and there were plot holes.

i am quite nitpicky and there were just some things that didn't work for me! but there was also a lot that did and i still had fun reading this. i will definitely check out more of the author's work in the future.

"I love you," Simon said again. And I knew I would never get tired of watching the shape of those words in his ragged, blurry voice. Fact. My thumb scuffed over his knuckles.
"That's convenient. Because I'm pretty sure I love you."
Simon smiled like the sun had reappeared after six months of gloom, and I realised I really, really meant it. There was nothing but calm in the warmth of his eyes.

[Cynthia G]

I received an advanced reader e-copy of this book thanks to NetGalley!

3.75/5 Stars! I want to start by saying that, to me, that is a good rating.

I am a huge fan of the fake-dating trope, so I was very excited to read this!

I love the Deaf community representation. I love that it shows different characters with different lived experiences within that community. There were instances where my brain wanted to complain about the way things are written, telling me there are corrections needed, but I kept reminding myself of the author's note and how they were writing in BSL as well. It was something I'd never read before, so I'm glad to see it in a published romance novel!

I love Ben and just wanted to give him a very big hug most of the time. The cause of his very low self-esteem became more evident as we got more of his backstory. I also thought all of his doubts regarding Simon were not unfounded. There were several instances where what he was being told did not match the information he had, so his questioning of it was completely legitimate! I'm trying to not give spoilers here, but basically him taking Simon for his word instead of his actions was not all that wild, when Simon's words set very clear boundaries!

I felt the end kind of rushed, like there were several loose ends I really wish would've been explained or wrapped up. Or even just giving a plausible reason why Ben and Simon would be of interest to the paparazzi, given that they are not celebrities. I was very happy with Ben's character growth, though!

I am glad the author's note alerted to the fact that they used a lot of Britishisms, because I was kind of confused at some parts. And it wasn't something I could just look up in a dictionary. I had to resort to Urban Dictionary, or sometimes I was even left without a definition and had to do my best to understand with only context clues. I was not successful 100% of the time, which bothered me a few times, mostly because I felt like it took me out of the story. Especially when they happened very close to one another. I felt like this happened more often at the beginning of the book. I'm not sure if I just got better at ignoring it (the not FULLY understanding with context clues alone), or if it just happened less often as the story went along.

Overall, I would recommend this book!

[C_C]

ARC REVIEW

"Read My Lips"

by Jem Martin


Jem's debut novel follows Simon Azie and Ben Cooper.

Simon is a PR magician, elegant, eloquent, handsome, multi cultural, and Deaf.
Ben is chaos, muscles, and a Sign Language interpreter to Simon. Oh, and definitely and irretrievably in love with his boss.

What seemed like a good MM romance from its cover, turned into an amazing MM romance.
Jem's writing is the definition of a refined and sharp sense of humor. Of an exquisite British English use of vocabulary (thank you, Jem, 0 clichés is more appreciated than you'll ever, ever know). Of wonderful side characters who add so much to the story. Of treating Sign Language and the Deaf community with care and respect and inclusivity.

And then the author adds hope, and joy, and smiles, and laughter, and so much Love to the equation. And Love had me all the way to adding this book to my favorites.


Releasing September 18.

Thank you to the author for this ARC.

---

Some of my favorite quotes:
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Manic-handed, I gripped the base of my c0ck, attempting to stop my hard-0n collapsing in on itself like a soggy Cornetto cone left out in the sun too long.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
My spine tingled. Like it always bloody did whenever he spoke.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Simon was bold and vibrant and beautiful.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
The bastard wet his lower lip. He had to know he could destroy entire countries with a move that lethal.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
He kissed me. With his mouth and his lips and choirs of angels peering down from the clouds waiting for me to get with the programme. Eyes closed, swooping violins.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
"At least," I signed, "no one's ever told you you're not-quite-gay-enough."
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
"I'm not a vampire."
"Debatable." Suave and highly sophisticated, soul suck!ng, manipulative, hypnotically handsome. That was a lot of ticked boxes.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Breathless, he leaned back, looking me over like he was planning on a feast. God, yes please.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
Oh, holy French kiss Batman.
He tongued into my mouth like he planned on burning through all the oxygen in the room.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
An incomprehensible caveman sound squeezed itself out of my throat.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑
his stupid-clever tongue did something spectacular and I full-on died a thousand times over, balling his covers in my fist, gnawing through my lip trying not to shout. Never mind piano, he could play me all damn day.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑

[Daniel]

Read My Lips is a charming adult MM romance novel perfect for fans of Boyfriend Material. Ben Cooper is a British Sign Language interpreter who works exclusively for (and pines over) Simon Azie, a PR representative who becomes embroiled in a sex tape scandal with one of his clients / former lovers. To help Simon out, Ben claims that it’s him in the sex tape, setting off a media firestorm. To keep up the ruse, Ben and Simon (mostly Simon) manufacture opportunities for publicity and spend even more time than before together, learning about each other's histories and experiences as they go. This fake boyfriends / forced proximity / workplace(-ish) romance takes our couple through obstacles like former lovers with hidden agendas and skeptics outside (and inside) of the relationship and leads to a hard-won HEA.

I adored this book on a number of fronts. Structurally, the written descriptions of BSL were thoughtful and vivid, never inaccessible nor overdetermined. Ben's witty, sarcastic, self-deprecatory tone reminded me in the best way possible of Luc O'Donnell from Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material, with so many laugh-out-loud and sympathy-deriving moments throughout. The gradual unveiling of the insecurities behind Simon's perfect PR facade made for convincing character arcs for both Simon and Ben, and I loved how their HEA involves Ben learning how to appreciate himself and take up his own space, without needing Simon to be his "missing half" that completes him. Though I could have used a bit more spice at times, what spice we get is thoughtfully integrated into Ben and Simon's development as a couple (plus a funny opening spicy scene with a side character that sets up later twists in the plot).

I did feel that the resolution of the third act "breakup" was a bit rushed (I wanted to hear more about the fallout with Richard, and Simon seems to switch on a dime from being mad at Ben to confessing his love for him), but I think that just speaks to my investment in the characters and the story. Overall, I adored this impressive debut from Jem Martin and can't wait to see what's next from her!

[Putri Siapa]

Written after an ARC from Netgalley

Actually I wanted to give it 2.5, but 2 is too low for this one, so 3 stars indeed (GR when will y'all give us option for half stars come on). I decided to request this because I read a tweet about someone who mentioned this and recommended it.

Funnily enough, I didn't exactly enjoy this book, BUT somehow I couldn't put this to DNF shelf since it felt like Ben didn't deserve that :-(

Ben is an interesting character for his job and how straightforward he could be for the things that he wanted. He's kind and caring, borderline very easy to manipulate. Meanwhile, there is this person, Simon. His love interest 🤗

To me, those two had the chemistry, a bit! because they lacked of background story about how they deserved to be with each other, heavy on Simon to Ben. Somehow, Simon's character felt so flat compared to Ben although it's kinda nice to have a representation of hearing problem special need as one of the main characters.

I understand that the fake relationship is to protect Richard's image. But, WHY Ben and Simon were the ones to be in the spotlight as if they were some important people? Maybe if the paps were after them only early and at the end of the conflicts, that I could understand, but why got so long since beginning till the end and went far till they buzzed around Ben's house? They were literally nobodies. They were working behind the scene and not the pop star here. My logic refused to just nod and agree.

Simon's character lacks of depth. I couldn't sympathize with him. Moreover after what he said, did, to protect Richard's image by sacrificing and tarnishing Ben's trust. The resolution was way too simple and felt abrupt. I got stressed a bit when I read that part because

1) Ben-Simon's relationship felt way too one sided since beginning even up till the end to me
2) What Simon did was too fatal for such a weak link between them

We got that part when it already passed 80% of the book, come on 🥴

All in all, I liked the representations here and Ben's character is still loveable to me 🫰🏼

[Camille]

ARC Review
Rating: 4/5
Spice: 1/5

For her debut book, Jem Martin did a really great job.

This is a 1st person, single POV MM romance, where we follow Ben Cooper and his boss Simon, on a journey from idiots to lovers (back to idiots for a bit, and the final HEA).
Will you get frustrated at Ben sometimes? Yes
Will you find his overthinking and low self-esteem relatable? Most likely
Will you want to punch some of the other characters in the book along the way? Abso-freakin-lutely!
You will most certainly end up rooting for Ben and Simon big time.

Are there some holes in the plot? Yes, some aspects of the story could probably have been tied up a bit better towards the end.
Does it affect the storyline so much that you don't enjoy the ending? Not at all!
Does it make you want to have Jem Martin write a bonus epilogue or two? Hell yeah! and maybe a novella about Jo and Sev as well (wink wink Jem)

The deaf representation in this book is present enough and BSL (British Sign Language) is referenced throughout the book, but there are quite a few moments that have you left wondering why no one is making an effort to communicate better with Simon. And his own explanation for why his family hasn't learned BSL didn't really hit the mark for me.
If you are familiar with the works of E.M Lindsey & Cora Rose, and their Deaf Hearts series, please know this is nothing like it (but not necessarily a bad thing, just different).

The premise of the book does take a bit of time to take shape, so don't expect anything major happening in the first half of the book. But then things ramp up, we get some cute and swoony moments, we get 2 plot twists (hello Luke, nice to see you again!) and some really lovely side characters (yes Sev, I'm talking about you, you black cat!).

All in all, it was a really nice book that I enjoyed reading and will absolutely recommend when someone asks for:
- a book not set in the US/Canada
- an indie author
- an MM romance with some British humour

[Jine]

4.5 stars!
This was so damn cute! We have Simon and Ben
Simon is a deaf PR consultant who was filmed being intimate with his client who he’s been with him and his wife before and he needs Ben’s help
When they are in the meeting Ben is sure Simon’s about to be fired so he says it’s him and Simon in the video to save Simon’s job because Ben is absolutely in love with Simon
So they have to pretend to be fake boyfriends fake insta stories and posts and more footage from their tape!
Along the way they decide to go on “holiday” from being boss and employee and hook up and agree to keep hooking up if it’s no strings attached because Simon isn’t a relationship guy and Ben just wants Simon’s affection
Ben is the kind of guy who’s down on himself he can’t see Simon actually liking him for him he’s let people walk over him and make him think he isn’t good enough so when he’s doing a interview with Simon his hookup and Ben’s former hookup he gets very flustered when Simon uses things that he told him personally plus it didn’t help that Richard this famous star who was in the video with Simon basically told him that he leaked it himself and that he was ruining his plans
Miscommunication happened but when a a coworker and Simon’s sisters fiancée comes to Ben’s house to show him all the pictures where Simon is looking at Ben like he hung the moon just like Ben did in his own pictures of him and Simon
They just needed too talk to finally get their emotions out and realize they both want and love each other
I love that Simon won’t let Ben talk bad about himself and realize he’s worth it and Ben can finally see Simon for who he truly is
I got a little worried but I knew they would get their hea thank goodness! Simon got a new interpreter Ben accepted help and furniture for his house and Simon helped him put up the important things in his house!

[Ghosts and you might die]

ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I've read 123 books this year so far, and very few of them have given me as much enjoyment as this dazzling sunrise of a debut. Read My Lips takes five dozen romance tropes and turns every one of them inside out and backwards with a wild, joke a minute, so-funny-why-am-I-suddenly-sobbing romp to its inevitable end.

The miscommunication trope is a ripe equine corpse in the genre. As this is a book quite literally about communication, the fact that the main characters tend to have a difficult time understanding each other (even when both of them are plainly stating the truth), should come as no surprise, and at no point is it a cheap, silly plot gag. No one here speaks the same native language. They literally cannot communicate without effort. The differences of class, race, gender conformity, and culture add layers and layers of complexity between a wealthy Deaf biracial man who has been raised outside of Deaf culture employing as an interpreter a working class white hearing man raised with BSL (British Sign Language) as his first language.

Despite the richly nuanced and charged themes, it's still a laugh out loud romcom, largely due to interpreter Ben's painfully self-deprecating first person narration as he eloquently laments the Situation he has gotten himself into. Even before the plot really gets rolling, it is a pretty lamentable situation: being three years deep in one sided, gross out all your friends, hopeless love with your boss/client in a profession that demands the highest of ethical standards is a real bummer of a rat's nest. Hijinks ensue and things get exponentially more complicated from there.

One of my favorite things about this book is how well the author describes Deaf languages. BSL is central, described in vivid nuance rather than blandly transcribed as though it were spoken English. Signs are enhanced, expanded or one handed, quick small gestures as a secret told across a crowded room, exaggerated for comic effect, vulnerable with shaking hands. Lipreading demands eye contact and conversations are cut dead by someone turning their back on the other. I read as many genre books with a Deaf MCs as I can and this sets a new standard.

I loved every minute of this book and cannot wait to see what Martin does in the future.

[Jo B]

This book was just not my particular cup of tea, unfortunately.

The basic plot/skeleton of the story is solid - PR manager has a video of him and his publicly-straight, rugby playing client in an illicit moment leaked; his BSL interpreter jumps in to claim it was him in the leaked tape to save both their jobs.

The idea of the plot was solid, but the execution wasn’t it for me. It felt a bit like the story was hidden under layers of unnecessary wordiness or preoccupation with quippy turns of phrase.

There were also a few too many loose threads at the end for me to be satisfied with it. Richard admits he leaked the video, but we don’t see Simon discovering that or any ramifications from that reveal. Similarly, Ben sends Mel the interview that he didn’t want publicised, but all we get is a couple sentences of him telling Simon what he had done. And nothing came of the conflict between Ben and his Gran aside from him breaking a porcelain dog.

The characters were also interesting and compelling. I loved the Deaf community representation - that’s something that I’ve not seen a lot in books. But the characters also had so many loose threads there that I’d have liked to see sewn up. I thought Ben’s conflicted relationship with his BSL and feeling like it was something he had lost and not quite regained was interesting, but we didn’t get much more than a passing couple paragraphs about it. I thought Simon lying about his family refusing to use BSL was also interesting, but again we don’t get much more than a few paragraphs from his sister about it - nothing from Simon himself.

None of my hang-ups were enough to make me DNF, and I’m not including them to try and dissuade anyone from reading. It simply just wasn’t the book for me. Hopefully, it finds its way to the audience that it should!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC

[Arlo Cushnir]

3.5/5

I received an eARC of this book through Netgally.

Ben is a British Sign Language interpreter for Simon, whom he has pined after secretly for years. When Simon is caught in a sex scandal with a client and finds his job in jeopardy, Ben spontaneously offers to pretend to be the one in a relationship with him to ensure both their jobs and his ability to see Simon every day.

As someone who loves Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, I was super excited for this book, which has a similar concept with added disability representation. I enjoyed the similar vibes, and I enjoyed myself overall. Ultimately, this book was good, but it could have been soooo much better.

One of the main issues I had was that the love interest, Simon, had a confusing personality. There was never any explanation of who he was or what he was like, and his actions and the thoughts Ben had were sometimes a bit contradictory in that regard.

There were also a couple of moments in the book where the characters seemed to move positions without any explanation of how that occurred. I also noted a couple moments where I was just confused about what the words I was reading meant at all. Some of that I will definitely attribute to being an American reading a very British book, but it didn't seem like that was always the case.

There were a couple of things that I wish were tied up a bit more at the end, especially regarding Simon's relationship with his deafness and his family. However, in general, I think the deaf representation was well done. I'm not deaf myself, but the deaf characters and topics in this book seemed to match up with what I know from Deaf creators and authors I follow. I think this book is certainly worth the read, especially for fans of Alexis Hall and disability representation, but I wish it had been more polished.

[Heloise]

This book is one of my new absolute favorites! I stayed up way too late (past 3am, late) and more than once I cracked up laughing in the middle of the night and scared the cat!

Ben, a BSL interpreter, has had a crush on his boss, Simon, a PR agent, for years. When a leaked sex tape threatens to out one of Simon's closeted clients, Ben comes up with a terrible plan to save Simon's job and his own. But will the fake dating stay as fake as it is supposed to be?

This book is a perfect blend of somewhat absurd humor (like the horse painting) and characters who are simultaneously frustrating and kind of endearing. I think readers who enjoyed Alexis Hall's London Calling Series or Ten Things That Never Happened will really enjoy it.

I am not Deaf, and I know almost nothing about BSL (I took some ASL classes when I was in school, but I have forgotten almost all of it).  So this is my not-especially-informed opinion, but I really enjoyed the glimpses of Deaf culture this book provided, especially through one of the secondary characters.  It made me want to learn more.  I also appreciated how there was no differentiation between signed and spoken dialogue in the book.  This book avoided a lot of the things that tend to bother me in books where the characters speak more than one language or where translation errors (or intentional mistranslation) are used to advance the plot.  

I won't say too much more because I don't want to spoil anything, but there was so much I liked about this book from the characters to the author's sense of humor to Ben and Simon's adventure in the rain.  I can never look at a picture of a horse with a straight face again.  I had to order a copy of this book so it can live on my shelf forever and I'm already looking forward to a re-read.  Highly recommended! 

Thank you to the author for the ARC!

[M H]

Review of an advance copy from NetGalley. No incentive was provided in exchange for my honest opinion.

There's a lot to enjoy about this book. The premise is absurd, par for the course with most fake-dating premise books in my experience. The hook? Ben is Simon's signing interpreter.

The story is unapologetically British, and was all the more amusing for it. There's no cheeky Nandos, but shopping bags dangling from your wrists while trying to flag a bus down in the rain? *chef's* kiss*

The spice is persistent and well-written, but also successfully weaving in the fact that Ben has a serious body image problem. His previous partners have consistently reinforced the notion that he's a good time guy, not relationship material. Simon unpicks this throughout the story with an amusing blend of sass and sincerity.

In some ways the ending is hinted at fairly on, Ben's feelings aren't the mystery, whether he can get out of his own head is. The single POV narration means we don't know for sure what Simon is thinking, but, as I'm sure the author intended, the reader catches on far sooner than Ben to Simon's vibe.

My gripe is that it feels like Sev serves up more of the HEA explanation for Simon than Simon himself! He and Ben get a sweet moment on the doorstep, but I mist admit it left me underwhelmed.

Something I did find fascinating - experiencing the description of switching between verbal and non-verbal language. I know some people would prefer it to be more explicitly noted such as through the use kf italics. But I actually liked the moments where they switched being noticeable only by context clues, it felt more true to life.

[Kathleen Burt]

I got to read an advance copy of this book, and I loved it, for several reasons. Ben feels outclassed next to stylish and super-competent Simon, as his sign-language interpreter, but swoops in to the rescue in a moment of misguided inspiration. They end up in a fake relationship of variable plausibility, depending on which of the entertaining supporting characters is side-eyeing them at the time.

It's witty and laugh-out-loud funny at times, but not at the expense of offering relatable characters and a love story on a human scale. It's not about sweeping music or last-minute sprints through the streets; it's about all the small moments that build meaningful connections between people.

We're not spoiled for disabled or d/Deaf representation in romance, let alone queer romance, and it was nice to see that handled lightly but touching on some of the cultural tensions with oralism and feelings of disconnect. The author doesn't belabour anything or get heavy-handed with any of the themes, but the characters' history accounts for their reluctance to expose themselves in particular ways. The various layers of confidence and insecurity feel very authentic, and the conflicts and complications arise organically from their histories and family circumstances.

We learn how colourful Simon's internal life is, and how committed Ben is to family obligations that he is reluctant to share. It's been several days since I finished reading, and the characters are still living, fully formed, in my mind. I loved it!

[Brady]

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. A charming read! I’m big into fake dating so I absolutely loved this! Ben has spent the last few years being a British Sign Language interpreter for Simon. As a PR agent Simon has a lot of work, so Ben stays pretty busy. The only problem is that he’s gone and developed feelings for his boss. Everything in Ben ants Simon so badly and Simon couldn’t give him the time of day. Also it would be inappropriate for anything to happen between them, but Ben can’t seem to move past his feelings. When a sex tape scandal with a client, one that could get Simon fired thereby leading to Ben’s unemployment, Ben can’t risk losing Simon in his life. So he lies, it was him in the tape with Simon not the client. Now Simon and Ben, in order to keep their jobs, must pretend to be boyfriends. They also have to recreate said sex tape to show it was Ben. How will Ben get through being so close to the man he wants so badly? And as they grow closer and the lines between them begin to blur can Ben survive? After all Simon doesn’t do commitment. Not to mention that Simon is absolutely stunningly gorgeous and Ben is most decidedly not. Sweet, swoony, spicy, and heartwarming! Jem Martin writes of love, disability, shame, insecurity, and truly being seen by someone else even when we can’t see it in ourselves! I highly recommend this one, it’s a fast paced read that was unputdownable!

[Allison Wells]

"Listen to me. You're exactly who I need, Ben Cooper. You always have been. No matter what you wear. Or who brought you up. Or what you choose to tell me. It's always been perfectly fine."

I am so grateful to have received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley.
I can honestly say I’ve never read a book as charmingly witty and Britishly fun as Jem wrote Read My Lips. Jem is clearly an absolutely brilliant author with such a fun, unique writing style, and I was completely hooked from the beginning.

The banter between Simon and Ben was absolutely perfect, and I fell for them both completely. Something that genuinely surprised me was how much I loved the single POV. I actually think it made the book better. I loved having to guess how Simon was feeling, and I felt like it added so much tension to the story. I didn’t want to know what was going on with Simon until Ben found out. It made me feel like I was right there alongside Ben, figuring everything out as he did.

There are some difficult topics explored in this book, and I really identified with the way Ben felt throughout the story. This is one of those heartbreakingly sad but incredibly beautiful books that manages to hurt your heart while still leaving you with so much warmth.

Jem, you’ve officially won me over. I absolutely loved this. ❤️

Author - Jem Martin
Star rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Spicy Rating - 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5
Overall - Autistic Allie Approved✅

[Maggie]

Read my Lips has Ben a British sign language interpreter personally working for Simon a deaf PR agent to help him navigate through meetings etc during his day to day work.
We only have this story from Bens point of view so I felt I didn’t really learn much about Simon, apart from Ben having had a strong crush on him from starting to work for him as he was so handsome and dressed incredibly well, and Ben describes himself as short hairy and ugly, when infact it’s mentioned late on in the book he just has a misshaped nose from it being broken in the past.
I took a while getting into the book, the chats between Ben and Simon on were at times amusing. When Simon puts his job so also Bens at risk by being filmed having sex with a well known rugby player the agency Simon works for is not happy so Ben comes up with a plan that he and Simon will re shoot the sex scene together and claim the other is a fake. This starts them on a relationship where strong feelings develop but Ben being so insecure and in love with Simon feels he is just not good enough for him. Where actually these two are perfect together.
I did feel there was a lack of depth in this story as it felt, to me, it was all one sided and Simon’s character could have been developed more. The ending though was good, more depth and humour and satisfying.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

[Louise J.]

Ben has been Simon’s BSL interpreter for three years, and he’s spent that time nurturing what he feels is quite an unhealthy crush on him. Simon is the complete opposite of him, full of confidence and living life out loud, whereas Ben prefers to disappear into the background. Simon is also Ben’s only client so when a social media furore threatens Simon’s career, Ben panics and throws himself into the limelight to save both their jobs. Cue hilarious hijinks as Ben and Simon try to recreate a risqué video and convince the world that they are a couple, which all too soon begins to feel pretty real to Ben.

Debut author Jem has created two wonderfully engaging characters, with Ben’s witty, self-deprecating personality an equal match for Simon’s smooth, calm and calculating demeanour. Their well thought out back stories evoke profound feelings around love, empathy and acceptance leaving the reader invested in how the story is going to unfold. Filled with crackling British humour, the book also shines a light on the intense intimacy which can develop through signing, unspoken words and shared looks. This thought provoking and steamy read not only glows with queer joy but also puts disability front and centre with pride. A really accomplished debut from an author whose future work I’m looking forward to reading.

I received a copy of this book at no charge. This is my honest, voluntary review.

[Nicole]

I enjoyed the author's witty writing style, which makes the whole story very entertaining, but it also contains some very touching and difficult moments. Between Ben’s grandmother and Luke, if I had just one horse mug to throw at them, I wouldn’t know which one to choose (and I’m still not over that goddamn horse).

I liked the dynamic between Ben and Simon where Ben lacks self-confidence, but Simon sees him differently, while Ben thinks Simon is perfect, yet they’re close enough that he gets to see through that façade. It’s fun to look beyond Ben’s obliviousness and notice how Simon actually perceives him. They trust each other and open up, and I love how they fit together during those scenes, being in each other’s corner no matter what.

I also liked the way that deafness and sign language were woven into the story with a constant presence, both reminding you of the struggles they face in daily life when it comes to their upbringing, their work and their families, but also giving them this special connection where Simon is so attuned to the way Ben signs while Ben instinctively tries to support Simon, always mindful that he can read his lips.

The identity of the person who was responsible for the leak caught me by surprise – it makes sense, but damn, I really have no sympathy for that move, and I’d like an additional horse mug for throwing.

[Bethany Reviews]

I received this copy as an ARC for my honest review.

I liked this story of Ben and Simon but I didn’t love it. There were a few things I didn’t like, however, I did enjoy some as well.

The things I did like:
-I love how Ben just stepped in for Simon saying it was him. I got the “oh boy, here we go!” Feeling of excitement of how the fake relationship would be
-the banter between the two. I found myself laughing out loud a few times to myself
-I liked how their relationship built and how Simon truly saw who he was and helped out with Ben’s insecurities
-I’m always for the asshole ex trying to ruining someone’s life and then they mess up and the relationship (of the MMCs) turns out to work

Things I didn’t like:
-I feel there were too many loose ends at the end. I wish there was more finality to it? I’m not 100% sure how to describe it but I wish that there was more addresses about Richard and the ending etc. I think this is why I gave it less stars
-I think this part is just a personal preference, but I want a fan of the miscommunication. That is just a “me” issue though.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book. I would recommend it. The banter is great and the relationship building was good too. I just couldn’t get over the end that felt like loose ends. I just wanted more for the finality.